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It’s Halloween week, so Pastor Shannon goes straight at the questions people ask him most: Is the devil real? Can a Christian be possessed? And what is spiritual warfare, really? He shares the night a girl in his Oklahoma City student ministry turned around after service and started speaking a language she didn’t know, what he learned from it, and why he tells Christians not to go looking for demons to cast out. He also explains why he believes excess, not possession, is the enemy’s main play against believers, and why he’s convinced the devil doesn’t want to kill you. He just wants to shut your mouth. The episode opens with a hard question about which sins are worst and a look at what happens when a pastor’s failure becomes a book deal. Then it takes a hard turn into Halloween candy, 80s horror movies, the real origin of Halloween, and Grok cussing live on the podcast. The back half walks through the full armor of God in Ephesians 6, with help from the movie 300, the Razorbacks, and a bowl of potato soup. Early voting in Arkansas runs through Monday, November 2, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Go vote. Grab a coffee and hang out with us. If this one got you, like it and share it with someone who needs it. Brand New Church | Farmington, AR #BrandNewChurch #BrandNewPodcast #ShannonODell

Pastor Shannon pre-ordered the new iPhone Duo and wants to know if he can preach off it. That kicks off an episode about technology, simplicity, and the way Gen Z talks about everything. He shows off his AI bot that built an app in under a minute, wrote a song, reviewed his sermon like a seminary professor, and offered to do his taxes. Then the guys walk through a simple setting that can cut your screen time by up to 50 minutes a day. The back half gets into Gen Z language: what a "deep flake" is, why someone announcing a digital detox drives Pastor Shannon nuts, and what's behind the rise of "sober curious." He explains why he doesn't believe in tough love, why he thinks every believer should see a Christian counselor every few years, and what he tells a young person who says they have church hurt. And yes, the pastor who swore he'd never decorate before Thanksgiving put his Christmas lights up on October 7th. Grab a coffee and hang out with us. If this one got you, like it and share it with someone who needs it. Brand New Church | Farmington, AR#BrandNewChurch #BrandNewPodcast #ShannonODell

For episode 50, Pastor Shannon sits down with his friend of nearly 15 years, Pastor Tim of New Life Church in Siloam Springs. Tim took the baton from his dad, who pastored the same church for 28 years, and has been in full-time ministry since 1989. They cover a lot of ground. Tim talks about four decades as a chaplain, including ten years delivering fatality notifications for the state police, and what it took to earn the trust of his local fire department. He shares 40 years of marriage to Trish, why you can't be an effective pastor beyond your marriage, and the best ministry advice his dad ever gave: buy a cemetery plot and plan to stay. Along the way, they get into what it means to belong to a church instead of just attending one, why a squishy toy giveaway at Seven Brew had police directing traffic, whether pastors should speak on political issues, production versus presence in worship, and a man at Brand New Church who walked up to the altar with hearing aids and walked away without them. Tim Tebow is coming to Brand New Church on March 6. Don't miss it. Grab a coffee and hang out with us. If this one encouraged you, like, subscribe, and share it with a pastor or leader who needs it.

This one starts with energy drinks and a coach wearing a nacho cheese stained t-shirt on the sideline, and ends with the crew calling a U.S. senator's office live on the show. In between, Pastor Shannon gets fired up about locking the clock, asks how old kids should be before they get a phone, and takes on the reason some parents won't post pictures of their kids online.The middle of the episode turns to a question a young guy brought to Pastor Shannon: what does someone in my generation need to do to get noticed? The guys talk about the weird Gen Z world of "talking" versus "talking talking," what clear intent and masculinity look like, why a clean car matters more than you think, and why living with conviction is the most attractive thing a man can have. Plus a case for why Jesus was a morning guy.The back half is a challenge to Christians to vote. Over 32 million evangelicals stayed home in 2024. The guys also get into property taxes, a 10% flat tax, the $5,000 check idea, and how much of the national debt we actually owe China.

Pastor Shannon has been keeping a list, and this whole episode turns into concerning trends. Some are harmless, like grandparents going by names like Hot Dog and Gagu, fourth graders doing NFL draft photo shoots, and needing four streaming services to watch one football game. Some are not. The back half gets serious. There's a growing crowd online telling Christians they don't need to read their Bible every day, don't need to tithe, don't need to go to church, don't need a wedding to be married, and can drink however they want because the Bible doesn't specifically say otherwise. Pastor Shannon walks through why "it doesn't explicitly say" isn't the same as "it doesn't teach," with a lot of scripture along the way. By his own count, 74 more verses than he had time for. Also in this one: why McDonald's is really a real estate company, the NFL getting booed in Brazil, the church critic who went dumpster diving, and a Greek word study that ends with "pneumonia."

A college quarterback gives one of the boldest postgame interviews you'll ever hear, thanking Jesus in every answer, and then walks off with an F bomb on live TV. Pastor Shannon says that moment explains a lot about why people don't take Christians seriously, and the conversation turns into what it actually looks like to be above reproach when somebody is always watching.Also in this one: the 47 year old pastor who's now a defensive end at San Jose City College, why Pastor Shannon won't go along with pronouns but will call you by your name, and whether Jesus really "hung out" with sinners. Plus the church that watched him through the glass doors and walked away, a skunk at 4am, and a long look at why the Hogs can't get a first down.

Shannon opens episode 46 with a plan to fire the entire Arkansas athleticdepartment and hand the program over to AI. It gets less funny from there.The first hour covers six dollar diesel and what that does to a midterm,twenty five years since 9/11, and an argument with Grok about what countsas illegal. Then Christina joins the table and the conversation turns.She talks about the Lindsay Clancy case, her own postpartum anxiety afterher third son, and the six week appointment where she told a doctor shewas struggling and got five minutes.

What happens when marriage, communication, trauma, career pressure, intimacy, conflict, and faith all collide in real life? In this powerful conversation, Pastor Shannon sits down with trusted marriage mentors, counselors, mediators, and therapists for an honest Q&A on the issues couples are actually facing. From learning how to communicate at a deeper level, to breaking destructive conflict cycles, to navigating trauma, expectations, intimacy, divorce, and spiritual alignment—this episode opens the door to healing, wisdom, and practical next steps for every marriage. Whether your marriage is thriving, struggling, or simply needing a deeper level of intentionality, this conversation will challenge you, encourage you, and remind you that you do not have to walk through it alone. For more information about today’s guests and how to connect with them, visit:  Andrew & Crystal Pitts:⁠ ⁠ ⁠Covenant Connections⁠ ⁠Crystal Pitts Counseling ⁠ Brandon & Alana Fairrell: ⁠Marriage Magnified⁠ ⁠Marriage Magnified Facebook⁠ ⁠[email protected]

Somebody came to Pastor Shannon and said the Bible doesn't actually say you can't have sex before marriage. Where'd they hear that? They typed it into ChatGPT. That conversation kicks off a wider one about why Christians hand over their convictions so quickly, and why we're so desperate for a celebrity to say something nice about Jesus that we'll overlook almost anything else.Also in this one: Nicki Minaj is apparently King James only, Dolly Parton somehow went her whole career without ever getting pinned down, and the guys make the case that nothing culturally significant happened in the entire decade of the 2000s.Plus the truth about those dump trailer TikToks, why "early is on time" is a hiring standard and not a suggestion, and the reason Pastor Shannon says Gen Z should get married sooner than they think.

Somebody left a note on a napkin in Pastor Shannon's mailbox, signed "concerned neighbor," and it did not read like a friendly hello. That story kicks off a wide ranging conversation about what's happening to basic decency in America, why a Georgia man is being hunted by police over thirty dollars he found in a parking lot, and why the church might be in better shape right now than it has been in decades.Also in this one: the median household income of church attenders will surprise you, over 800 students showed up on a Wednesday night across both campuses, loneliness apparently does the same damage as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and Pastor Shannon takes his second cheat day in two and a half years and immediately regrets it.Plus Razorback predictions that nobody on the team wanted to hear.

Pastor Shannon just got back from vacation and it did not start well. XNA didn't have anyone on hand to fix a small maintenance issue on a 5:10 a.m. flight, so he missed it and spent an unplanned night in Chicago. He redeemed it with Lou Malnati's deep dish, then lost three hours to Odyssey on IMAX and would like them back. That's the first twenty minutes. Then it turns into a money conversation and gets pointed. His argument is that you probably have more room than you think. Wages are up 46 percent, groceries are up 34 percent, and he says that gap is 12 percent nobody's accounting for. He walks through what a couple paying $2,200 in rent and $2,400 in daycare could do instead. Buy a house with a 680 credit score, live in it two years, rent it out, buy another one. Do that four times and you're an asset millionaire before 35. He also runs the math on whether a second income is actually a second income once you take out childcare, the car, the work clothes, and the phone. He's careful to say he isn't telling anybody to quit their job. Also in here: the timeshare presentation vacation hack and why two hours of it is genuine torture, ten to God and ten to yourself and live on the eighty, the tractor he couldn't afford and bought anyway, why he thinks TikTok works like a curtain, and an engineer who finished a $150,000 project in ten hours. Plus: nobody wants to go to a small mall, $3.75 an hour in the 80s, and a kid yelling watch this from the side of a pool nine times in a row. Comment your worst airport story, or tell us where you land on the house thing. Then send this to somebody who says they can't afford it.

Ryne, Gabe, and Sebastian spend the first twenty minutes on a top three draft of school cafeteria foods, which turns into an argument over who gets to claim the roll. From there it's ding dong ditching, back to school shoes, and what their parents did to them when they got caught playing video games at two in the morning. Then it turns into a conversation for parents. How do you keep first week of school energy from dying off by October? Should Wednesday nights be optional? What do you do when your kid's schedule is already full and church didn't make the list? Ryne shares what a room full of student leaders told him at his house last week, Sebastian makes a case for public school as a mission field, and Gabe pulls a stat on Gen Z church attendance that none of them saw coming. Also in this one: Ryne's mom hid every battery in the house instead of taking his Xbox, a brand new pair of reflective Air Maxes meets a construction nail, and Gabe puts his money where his mouth is on Prairie Grove vs Farmington. Midweek starts this Wednesday, August 12th at 6:30. Shirts for the first students through the door, a scavenger hunt for kids, and two giveaways going all semester. Uniteds are opening up for the fall at brandnewchurch.com. If your family needs a backpack or shoes to start the year, reach out. First name at brandnewchurch.com gets you to any of us. Comment your favorite cafeteria lunch, your least favorite class, or your score prediction for Prairie Grove vs Farmington. Then send this to a parent who needs it.

Pastor Shannon is convinced the algorithm is watching him. It started with tractor videos. Now he can't get away from something called a Boulder Buddy, and he's starting to think he might actually want one. That's how this episode opens. It ends somewhere completely different — with a hard conversation about a pastor who got caught in an inappropriate situation with his worship leader and told his staff they had just been making chili. From there we get into what people really mean when they say "dark season," the difference between being hurt and being harmed, why church hurt usually isn't what people think it is, and whether you can actually lose your salvation. In between: flock cameras, government grocery stores, car seats as a form of communism, and a guy in an American flag diaper outside Trump Tower. New episodes every week from Brand New Church in Farmington, AR. #brandnewchurch #podcast #christianpodcast #faith

Episode 40 starts with memorial plaques on church coffee pots and ends up in Matthew 8 — and somehow it all connects. Shannon breaks down the one-ingredient eating plan after 820 days of carnivore, why summer hobbies are actually therapy, and what he learned during a week of "GPop CC Camp" with the grandkids. From there the conversation turns to the thing most Christian parents aren't doing: discipling their own kids at home. The guys talk through practical tools (The Action Bible, the Brand New Kids devos already built into the church app), why we only challenge our kids on the things that embarrass us, and the real ages of David and the disciples. The back half gets into locking the clock, voter ID, and what happens when leaders stop leading — which lands on the Roman centurion in Matthew 8 and the only two times Jesus said He'd never seen faith like that. If you want the authority, you have to get under authority. Grab a set of headphones, go mow something, and listen. If this helped you, click like and subscribe — and share it with a parent who needs it.

Pastor Shannon O'Dell sits down with Seth Tomboli, campus pastor at New Life Church in Fayetteville, for a wide-ranging conversation about planting, measuring ministry, and staying spiritually healthy while leading. They get into the phone call that put a Bentonville campus on the table, why the metrics that matter aren't the ones you'd expect (kids check-ins and dumpster size), and how Northwest Arkansas has become a mission field that doesn't require a passport. The back half goes personal: the father wound behind insecurity in leadership, comparison and competition among pastors, whether sabbaticals have become an escape instead of a tool, and what actually restores a leader. Plus honest takes on social media, AI in sermon prep, and building a life your closest people respect.